Smells and Bells

Smelling Smells My Most Influential Sense  Out of all of the senses, I would say that my smell sense has the most influence. As mentioned in "A Natural History of Senses" by Diane Ackerman, olfactory is connected to our memories. When picking through my memories and trying to find the memory I'm looking for, its much easier to do if I smell something I associated with it, than have someone tell me about the memory verbally. Post my traumatic brain injury in 2013, smell has always been the best way for me to connect to the memories I don't consciously remember.  I have an oil diffuser in my dorm room, as i'm sure some of you also do. I have three oils that I rotate using to make my room smell good: orange citrus, eucalyptus, and "ocean breeze". Ocean Breeze is my favorite because rather than smelling like the salty air I associate with the ocean, it smells like clean, fresh out of the dryer laundry. I was disappointed at first, but grew to love...

I was not able to attend the House Of Larva Show so I decided to look into it myself a little more. To be able to understand some of their other shows I looked on their website. I saw some of the stuff they showed us in class and some stuff I don’t think they did. About Page: I found it cool that The House of Larva had their first show at. School bar. I just can’t really imagine watching a drag show at a bar so I thought it was really interesting. From what I understand House of Larva doesn’t put on the same show more than once. I think I remember them saying that in class. I was a little confused by thins though because I would have thought that they would want to get their messages out to as many people as possible. Current Project Page: Their show they are working on now takes place in outer space which was s turn I wasn’t expecting. I personally love space stories so I would be interested to see this show In class Discussion: I thought I was neat that they incorporated part of ...

I’ve been playing tennis since I was a little kid. It is one of the most difficult sports when it comes to staying mentally tough. Thats why a lot of tennis players are a little insane (; Over the years I have developed a sort of routine that can be tied with religion. Before every match, especially away ones, I listen music with my beats headphones. I have done this since I began doing USTA tournaments in middle school. During the match I have a pink towel that I go to each time we switch sides. I also don’t like to take off pieces of clothing unless I get wicked hot because I get a little superstitions. In between each point I go back to the fence and take deep breaths and encourage myself and not let anything get in my head. When it comes to the senses they all come into play while I’m on the court. I can SEE my dad pacing in the background. I can HEAR my loving teammates cheering for me regardless if I will or lose a point. I can SMELL the new tennis balls when a can ...

People can take senses for granted a lot of the time. During this class I have wondered repeatedly what it would be like to miss one of the senses. I think that if I had to give up one it would be smell. I know that with giving up smell I would also be giving up a lot of my ability to taste but I would still be able to taste the basic sweat, sour, salty and etc… I wouldn’t want to not have my sense of touch because I can’t imagine not being able to feel loved ones anyone. Their tough is comforting and I rely on it so much. When I was in grade school we did this experiment once requiring us to live out a day as if we couldn’t see. We had to wear blind folds for hours to get the experience. We had to have someone help us with homework, help us get around, help us prepare food, and more. This experiment helped me to realize, as a young kid, that some people have it a lot harder than I do and it only took the loss of one sense. If I were to lose my sight I wouldn’t be able to tennis wh...

                      At the academic festival I experienced all of the senses. Smell-when I walked into the room with the buffet I could smell the lashed potatoes and the bread! All the food smelled amazing and I couldn’t wait to taste it Taste-My favorite part of the meal was the bread. I got to take it home after and I decided to try Nutella with it and it was the best idea I ever had. I wish I knew how to make it so I could give it to other people Hearing-I loved listening to the stories around me. President Hanno sat at our table so I got to learn stories about Wheaton I hadn’t heard before. I learned that he had to find a way to tell the students over the summer that their famous duck had died. I thought it was so funny that he had to find a way to announce the death of a duck to his school. Sight-I loved looking around and seeing all the different types of lighting in the room. There was multicolor string light...

“We are all, secretly, nocturnally gifted. We just live in the day, oblivious to our own secret stars” - Kripal Before this class, I didn't take much time to really think about the senses. I knew the five basic senses of touch, smell, sight, hearing, and taste. At the beginning of the semester, I was assigned to be a part of the group assigned to present about the sixth sense. I had no idea what to expect. Thankfully, I got into something incredibly intriguing that would peak my interest for some time even after our work was presented. With looking into the sixth sense, I became much more interested in how this research pertained to me personally. I read so much about how this sense can be interpreted in a number of ways. Which leads me to believe it may be different but also the same for everyone. Many different sources, as well as those given in Authors of the Impossible: The Paranormal and The Sacred , present the sixth sense as an extraordinary connection to the spiritua...

Blog 6             Hearing is one of our most important senses. It is one of the first senses we use in the womb. When a baby is in the womb it can already detect their mothers voice. That’s why in the womb the doctor advises you to play music and talk to your baby. When puppies are born their eyes are not developed, however they communicate with their mother and littermates through small squeaks. Hearing allows us to communicate with not only other humans, but other animals in general.         When I was training my mini labradoodle puppy, I used only positive reinforcement. I used a clicker and all natural treats to train. When she did something correct, I clicked the clicker, fed her a treat and lots of pats. She learned the clicking noise was positive because she associated the noise with treats and pats. This is how noise can help us communicate with our beloved pets. And ...

Blog 5 Our culture is one that heavily relies on vision. We use our eyes for most everything we do for example reading, cooking, sports and entertainment. What is an activity you can do without you eyes? Our culture is very visually centered. When it comes to our everyday lives vision plays a key role. As a predatory mammal our eyes are placed in the front of our head unlike a prey animal like a horse where their eyes are on either side of their head. Vision helped us not only secure food as hunters back in the day but also to communicate. We used symbols to communicate such as “icons”, “The creation of such images is perhaps the earliest form of human symbolization. People lifted out ordinary visible data of the world a shape, a form, which crystallized experience and with its meanings and connotations, told a story.” (Eck 12). Our eyes are also the first sense we use to find attraction. For example, if you are at the animal shelter you are initially drawn to th...

“Hindu thought is most distinctive for its refusal to make the one and the many into opposites. For most, the manyness of the divine is not superseded by oneness. Rather, the two are held simultaneously and are inextricably linked.” (Eck, pg. 28) The section of Darśan: Seeing the Divine Image in India was really interesting to me. Usually when you see something you take it as face value, instinctively categorizing it into whatever niche your brain thinks it fits. We divide animals, plants, objects, even other humans into often arbitrary categories when our vision goes unchecked. In such a sight-based religious practice, it would be easy to see how one could think of deities as unattached to each other, each having distinct and separate attributions mutually exclusive with others. However, in Hinduism, this difference does not mutually exclude oneness. When explaining away the visual distinctions we make between humans, whether it be due to race or gender or body shape or some other v...

Blog 2 The sixth sense is always a big question.  After all, technically what is the sixth sense. Is it a farce or is it just intuition or plain old luck?  Due to my fears and apprehension of all para natural or phoneomana, I do not have the sixth sense which I am very relieved.  After all our readings on this, I also believe that one has to really believe in it.             It is often said that when you are asleep you are closed to dead. That sentence resonates with me. At the age of fourteen my beloved uncle lost the battle to cancer and passed away. Distraught and depressed I longed for the day to see him again. Sure enough months after his passing he appeared in my dream. It was a fleeting dream that I barely remember but I feel like that is his way of visiting me. For me , this specific visit and others similar that have occured completely make me happy and warm.        ...